Tale-ing Fragments #6: She Dreams + Varnished wood tutorial

"She dreams of faraway places and daring adventures.

Her eyes gleamed with the first step in the journey"

It's been a while since I made one of these fragmented story-collages, I had so much fun! Part of the fun in this particular project was the combination of using older technique-testers and the accidental discovery of a new technique - a yummy varnished wood look! (tutorial below).

What started me going was a Steampunk theme challenge in two blogs, the SanDee&amelie's challenge blog and the Simon Says Stamp challenge blog that also had a Steampunk theme (I actually missed the deadline for the later, so will be entering this work to the Anything Goes theme challenge Simon has on their Weds challenge 😅).

Like many of us these days, I've been at home a LOT, and I used some of this time to play with craft supplies, so I wanted to incorporate some of my trials in this piece. The large mosaic-like image in the back was done with the distress crackle-paste + embossing glazes technique shown by Tim Holtz & Stacy Hutchinson a couple of weeks back. The nautilus piece below is from playing with alcohol ink lifting. I did not expect them to work well together, but it's always a great surprise when that happens. I then picked a paper doll and found her story in my mind - doesn't she look like she'd be a great adventurer? Not the flashy kind, a clever time-traveler that can go, observe, learn and come back without causing a mess.

Clearly she needed a Steampunk\time machine.
My association of Steampunk includes, beside the industrial grunge, also the slick decorative Victorian style design that had polished wood and glass elements beside the iron and steel. I was thinking of how to get that polished wood effect when my eye caught my Distress embossing glazes - would it work? It did! I was so excited with the results I had to share them and some kind fellow crafters asked me for a tutorial - challenge accepted! And embedded below, but first, a few more details of this lovely adventurer and her machine:

I love how the stained gear fits with the nautilus pattern, in some angles it almost disappears!

Now for the promised tutorial:



This is my first attempt at making a video tutorial, so I hope it's clear enough...
If you have any questions about the video or anything else in the project please feel free :)

If you're looking for more inspiration take a look at these wonderful challenge blogs, they always have amazing inspiration and treasures in the entries

SASPC

SSS Wednesday Challenge

  

For now, a shiny farewell

xx

Muses #1: Alterman's Moon

We all have muses in our lives: poems, movies, books, a sentence that caught with us and stayed around. One of mine is this poem by Natan Alterman (1910-1970) titled "Moon":

* Based on a translation by Lewis Glinert.

This poem was written in 1938, it's one of Alterman's best known works an much can and has been be said about it. For me, reading it years back, I was left with two main impressions: the idea that a familiar, everyday sight can seem new again and the visual of a moon at the spear of a cypress tree. (Alterman talks of a Mediterranean cypress, Cupressus or "Brosh" in Hebrew, that is characterized by a tall and narrow canopy that is often spear-like in shape). I've often found myself reminded of this poem when seeing just this sight: the moon at the point of a tree, and it always made me smile because it felt fresh and wondrous, no matter how many times I saw it :)
I love this poem always, but in these crazy times it warms my heart even more. It's not without poignancy, but it expresses wonder before minute, everyday things that we usually don't acknowledge, and I think that within the craziness and uncertainty we currently live in it's more important than ever to remember the little things that make us smile.
So look out your window tonight, find the moon at the point of a tree and smile back at it 🤍

This collage was in my head for a while, working out how I want it to look when, a few days back, I saw a demo of the paints I used (Distress Crayons, demonstrated by the one and only Tim Holtz) and bam - I knew they would be perfect!

I wanted the background to have the lyrics repeatedly, so I printed them on the blank Collage Paper (my new best friend in collage making) in different font sizes and scattered them about. Then I colored over the background with Distress Crayons, they gave the exact vivacity I was looking for while keeping the text visible. The tree is an Idea-ology half-tree that got a tint and a new hairdo to look like a Cupressus tree. The lovely moon was made with alcohol inks - I love how textured it looks!

For the trail I used the new Distress Glazes + Crayons technique Tim shared in his demo that creates all these little pits, isn't it the coolest??

This was one of these projects that took a lot of time hibernating in my brain before I started working, and maybe that's why it didn't take very long to finish. It's nothing too fancy, but it's close to my heart (and already on my wall). I felt like sharing it, so aside from posting it here I'm entering it to the Simon Says Stamp weekly Wednesday Challenge, which has an Anything Goes theme this week.

I hope this project will give you a smile, keep safe and find the little things that make you happy,

xx
Naama

Vintage-ing a LED Lantern

 Hi all ^^

This was a fun little project I thought I'd share, it only took me half a day or so (including waiting for paints to dry - so very quick!) and it's such a HUGE difference.

I got the lantern in Ikea, this is what it originally looked like:

Cute right? It's actually pretty nice for a piece of plastic, but I saw immediately that it had potential for so much more ;)

The first thing I did was cover all the black parts in Collage Medium, even though it's a glue it works great as a primer for sleek\non-porous surfaces. Then I started adding details to make the lantern look more authentic.

I removed the string from the top and replaced it with wire, then I drilled a hole at the top of each side-handle and added a long wire handle. I also wrapped a wire around the lamp part, which I connected at the bottom by drilling two small holes and inserting the edges. the wires are all a bit crooked, but hey - it's supposed to look vintage right? ;)

The last wire detail was a small lever that I inserted at the bottom part into another little hole I drilled. next to it I glued die cuts of numbers. I cut them from black cardstock to save on painting them, but really it can be any color.

On the other side I added a little knob. This is supposed to replicate the opening where they'd add oil, and it's was the hardest detail to find. I tried a lot of options and ended up using some rubber part I got from an old computer I took apart (I think it was meant to keep some parts in place, but not sure...). I think it looks pretty good, but it so funny when you touch it and realize it's rubber 😂

The lantern already looked pretty authentic once everything was glued, and I could just leave it in black, but I really wanted to rust it up ^^
I added Finnabair's metallic waxes to the black to create a metal base and then used her Rust Effect Paste trio - I LOVE this stuff! It took some layering and playing (and waiting), but finally I was happy with the rust illusion.

To finish it, I added some highlight with the waxes and a bit of patina with Tim Holtz's distress paints in blue and green. It was barley a drop of paint on the whole thing, but it's amazing what difference it makes!

I liked the results so much I decided to add it to the SanDee&amelie's March 2020 Steampunk Challenge, there are some seriously amazing works there so do check it out!

Hope you enjoyed this little project! Now excuse me while I go look for other things to 'rust-up' ;)

Have a great weekend and take care xx

Guardian of Lost Souls

Between this world and the next they hover aimlessly, lost but not alone. Some carry the sadness of their departure, others harbor hate and foster wrath over their unjust end. In that fine membrane between worlds they hover under the guardian's watchful eye.
But who is he guarding? Us or them?

Those of you that follow my Instagram or Facebook already know this work, but I felt like sharing it here where I can get a bit crazy with detail shots ;)

This piece is definitely one of those 'a simple idea that escalated' cases.
It started with the skull, I wanted to see how dimensional I can get this paper die-cut, and I was really happy with the results. It's pretty amazing what some forming and ink can get out of flat paper!

I knew this skull deserved to be the center of something special, and from the beginning had the idea to have it's eyes glimmering wickedly  (muwahahaha), so I decided to use LED lights. If you're familiar with these light strings, you know that they are pretty long, so I started thinking how I can use the rest of the lights in the background and it came to me - ghosts!
I dug through my stash of Tim Holtz Paper Dolls and found all the 'disfigured' ones - they come cut out in detail, and every now and then the cutting isn't exact and something get cut off, you can see the girl and man in the photo bellow have part of their head missing. It's very rare to find a Paper Doll this off so it's lucky I have quite a stash ;)

 

 For the lighting to work the background has to be translucent, but not clear so the light is diffused. I used Tim Holtz's alcohol inks and pearls on acetate. The mica in the pearls makes them more opaque, so when the lights are off it kinda looks like shimmery dirt lol

 I twined the lights behind the "ghosts" and used hot glue to make sure they stay in place.

I wanted the frame to continue the vibe of the work, so I used some texture paste with stencils in different places to get interesting patterns and dimensions. Once dried I covered the paste with black acrylic paint and finally added some of Finnabair's metallic waxes for color and shine. 

I really like how it all came together in creepy-cool goodness. Finishing with lights-on-lights-off shots, hope you like this guy as much as I do :)

Memories are Cracks in Time

Hi everyone, hope you've had a lovely weekend ^^

One of my favorite ways to try out new ideas and techniques is taking part in a craft challenge, there's just something about a theme thrown at you that gets the creative juices flowing. Simon Says Stamp have a couple of great challenge blogs, and in this week's Monday Challenge the theme is 'crack it up' - no way I'd skip that! YUM
It was one of those cases when one idea sparks the next, and I had a lot of fun experimenting and playing along.

The challenge title gave me several ideas for techniques and mediums I could use - from stencils to crackle paste - and I ended up combining most of them in the background. You can see the stenciling in two corners. The large 'crack' was done by stamping into the wet texture paste, then I added some crackle paste. I really like how the two pastes combined as they dried and the cracks appeared. I then added some color with sprays and some shading with markers.

For a focal image I immediately thought of this awesome broken pocket watch stamp by Visible Image. I decided to give it some dimension by stamping it a few times, then cutting out and layering pieces in different heights, I even glued some of them at an angle to give the feel of movement, as if the watch had burst from the inside out. To add texture and shine to the watch I selectively clear embossed some of the the base to create depth, and on the shards I brushed some Nuvo crystal drops for subtle shine and used the same drops to create a raised shiny border on the frame and metal ring. I added some Distress Mica Flacks here and there to emulate broken glass. I finished it with a couple of clock hands for Tim Holtz's Idea-ology.

The combination of the clock image and the challenge title brought the idea of memories as cracks in time. I really like it because a) it's sort of true and b) it gives an interesting twist to the often negative associations of 'crack'. I'll definitely come back to this idea in future projects, it really got the wheels turning, but for now - hope you like this little experiment!

Floral Pipelines

Hi Everyone! How is 2020 treating you so far?

I'm trying to keep up with my promise of posting more regularly this year, and though I'd share my latest project. It was a long while in the making, partly because I had to put it aside for a bit in favor of other more urgent projects, and partly because it took me a while to figure out exactly how to get the idea in my head out into the world hehe But here it is: the Floral Pipeline flower vase/canvas!

I owe the inspiration to my awesome neighbor, he has a gift of having plants in surprising places in his home, it's absolutely lovely and seeing it sparked the original 'what if a flower vase was a part of a painting?' thought, which led to the 'how?' and after much thinking and planning - voila! Painting\vase!

The idea was that the canvas would work just as well without flowers\plants (as any good vase should!), so I placed a flower image right at the top of the vase-tube that works as a backdrop for any flower or plant you'd put in it. I think it would look pretty with a draping vine of some kind, what do you think?
I built the background by combining Tim Holtz's Collage Papers and ephemera pieces with crackle paste and paints, and then added an industrial vibe with the pipes and tube.

The vase itself is a large glass tube that I wrapped with thick wire. The edges of the wire are attached to the canvas under the pipes. To keep it in place, I attached a large nut to the canvas, the hole is perfect to hold the rounded bottom of the tube.
I love these Pipeline dies (also by Tim Holtz) and thought that a water pipe theme would work great with a flower vase. The different pipe parts were cut out of chipboard for dimension and covered with gold embossing powder for a metallic finish. I love the imperfections in the finish 🖤

I added a bit of Seth Apter's Patina Baked Texture on some of the pipes for extra interest and Finnabair's rust pastes to add the effect in some places - I just love rust colors, in fact I like the so much I used them for some of the flowers as well! It's hard to see in the photos, but it also gave them a bit of extra texture :)

st

I really like this idea and will probably make more versions in the future, hope you'd be interested in seeing them 
I'm entering this piece in two chalenges: the SanDee&amelie's February Steampunk challenge and Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge. If you're not familiar, the SASPC blog has a monthly Steampunk themed challenge that always has amazing steampunk\industrial entries. Simon Says Stamp has a couple of challenge blogs, this week's theme on their Monday Challenge is Floral Frenzie. Both challenges have amazing entries every time, I always find them so inspiring! I definitely recommend checking them out ^^

As always - I'd love to hear what you think :)
xx

Snowed in: work process in (lots of) pictures

Hi everyone!
It's been ages again, I know... I will try to get this blogging thing together this year (go 2020!), I just never seem to find the time. Anyways, those of you that follow me on Instagram or Facebook have already seen the making of this little snowed in house, but I thought it would be nice to collect all the photos in one place, so here we are ^^

Here you can see the skeleton base of the house. I use Tim Holtz's village dies and mix and match them to create the design I want. The shape of this house was actually inspired by a house I saw on Doc Martin, that's where I got the idea to place the door on the side addition. It took some creative adjustments of the dies, but since I managed in the end ;)

The next step is a loooot of cutting. And I mean A LOT. You can see the walls, window frames and (about a ton of) shingles. After cutting the basic shapes I modify them to fit with what I have in mind. I try to match the colors of the different elements with the planned color scheme, it helps giving a smoother, more natural look in the end (if I don't have a matching colored paper I use white and paint it, but because paints often react with the mediums I use and change it's safer to start with color paper). Even though my miniatures don't aim at perfect realism, I feel that these little touches make a big difference and give the houses their unique character.

Then I texture the walls. There are about a million ways to do it, depending on the look you're after. In this case, I wanted stone walls that has an old-fashioned feel to them, but (unlike my haunted houses) without being creepy (or at least not obviously so ;p)
I used one of Tim Holtz's stencils, I think it's meant more for paved roads, but the uneven shapes are great for old stone walls. There's a variety of pastes and paints you could use, here I went with Ranger's texture paste because it's consistency (and drying time) allows some play and creating the gritty\rocky texture, plus it takes paints perfectly - as you can see in the photos below :)

Because the walls were covered with stone texture it's pretty easy to get realistic results. I went with greys in this one, adding some greenish tints for a mossy effect. It's always easier to paint flat surfaces, so I do most of the coloring before adhering the panels and just add some final touches afterwards. Before adhering the painted walls to the base I added vellum to the windows so it would be sandwiched between the two layers that make up the walls. I also added the door, which was made from woodgrain paper for texture, and built a tiny frame around it. Finally I adhered the roof base in place.

Next are the shingles! I used Tim Holtz's distress black paper because it has some (lovely) texture and a kraft paper core so when you sand it you get a pretty realistic look for the shingles. To be honest, I usually put a lot more into the texture and coloring of the shingles, but in this case I knew they would be mostly covered with snow so only did the minimum.
For the windows, decided to add glaze on top of the vellum. I usually use vellum because it's masks the candle and diffuses the light beautifully, but I wanted the shine of glass and decided to try glaze. I really like the results here, it's not completely even which fits with wet/frosted windows. I'm not sure it would work with other projects, but here it does. 

 

I then tinted the frames a bit to bring out the texture of the paper and added some glazing so it would look more like a lacquered frame.

Next is making a base for the little house.

 

I use two layers, the bottom is wood, so I don't need to worry about warping when I add paints and whatnots. The upper layer is thick grayboard, so I can cut out the shape of the house with a craft knife. This creates a perfect place for the house to nestle in and keeps the whole structure stable even though the house and base are not adhered. 

I painted the base white and voila! The basic house is ready, now the real fun begins with the details :)

The first thing I did was to cover the house and little yard with snow. I used Tim Holtz's Distress Grit-paste and sprinkled it with Distress clear Rock Candy Glitter. I'm not a fan of glitter, but I saw a lot of AMAZING examples of snow effect using these two products over the holiday season so I had to try and I have to admit - I squealed a little, but I mean just LOOK at this roof! Can you blame me?

I sort of forgot to take process photos from this stage, just got sucked into it... You can see the results, tough, and I'll just go through what I did ^^

In building the snow in the yard I created an entrance way and then painted the paving. The little snowman was made from air-dry clay, I used the end of a toothpick for the nose and teeny-tiny branches for his arms. When the clay was set it was brushed with grit-paste and then a bit of glue and rock candy glitter. I added very (very) thin strips of grayboard under the window frames and sprinkled them with snow. 

This is the original front view, but it felt like something was missing. I got some great ideas from followers on FB, and in the end added the sledge. I used the same woodgrain paper I used for the door and some silver metallic paper for the runners. It's seriously tiny, and I had to use tweezers in making it because my fingers were just too big! After placing the sledge in a little pile of snow (=some more grit paste + glitter) I added the "rope" as the finishing touch.

The lantern at the door was made with a flower-center die I cut from grey paper, rounded and then built the lamp with clear Nuvo drops + a drip of their glow in the dark yellow drops. The yellow does glow in the dark, but it's such a small amount it's hard to see... However, like most glow in the dark products, it has this luminescent property even in the light that definitely works for a lamp.

On the side and back I added trellis using a fabric net I brushed with Distress Collage Medium Vintage. The tint in the medium gave the net a light brown shade that is perfect for a wooden trellis and also hardened it and made it easier to shape. I threaded some green and brown threads through the net for vines, or what's left of the - it is snowing after all! Finally I added a cat at the back window, just because :)

Here are some more shots of the house from different angles, so you can see the overall view.

That was a long one! I hope you found some part of it useful. I think I covered everything, but if you have any questions do feel free :) 

Till next time! xx